If you could clone any piece of gear...

[gyraf]

..the "Big Dog" from Boston Dynamics..

Jakob E

 

[QUEEF BAG]

it really seems like the thing(s) that NEED to be cloned

is the iron.   UTC  Peerless  Triad   etc.

that's  likely  the largest pool of  mojo  in the old stuff

Nobody wants to sacrifice the major unobtanium pieces to the hungry hacksaw!

well...i dunno how CJ gets his victims, i just hope he never finds out there are Zutts where i am.

do a bunch of gangster like thugs barge in?  or is it hoards of demons summoned from another realm?

 

[deuc224]

Id go for a viPRE clone personally

 

[Kingston]

I never understood the thing with vintage iron. There are superb modern brands around. Too much fuss over some smudgy collectors items. They aren't colorful to me, just  smeary in a crappy way. Kind of like all the butchered name brand channels strips around filled with shitty NE553X's and TLO7X's. It's "rock", apparently. Just crap to me actually.

I would like some top quality tubes cloned. Most of the "standards" in circulation today are mere shades of their former selves, and remakes very rarely match the better old brands. And no, I will never pay more than $15 a tube. And even then it better be really good and rare one.

Then again the Russians still have many great (cheap and less explored) alternatives to offer...

 

[mac]

charlize theron...

OK....charlize theron sitting on two mint condition fairchilds...

probably tell her to get off the fairchilds so ......scratch that...

 

[emrr]

I never understood the thing with vintage iron. There are superb modern brands around. Too much fuss over some smudgy collectors items. They aren't colorful to me, just  smeary in a crappy way.

I'm heavily biased, but gonna guess you've never heard any of the good vintage iron.  There's definitely a large trend around here of using the cheap crap and feeling all glowy about it's vintage. 

I'm always amazed how crappy a lot of modern iron can be.  Examples include insufficient L for matching conditions (making it cheap and small)  and unruly response behavior unless loaded perfectly.  Many 1:1's used as outputs will only give rated response if driven with extremely low-Z sources, and completely crap out with anything less than a bridging source.  Not cool in my book, especially when not advertised as such.  Vintage stuff from the age of matched impedances never changes under minor load differences, and be counted on to work in a variety of circuits without testing.  I would never commit to modern iron without a serious test and measure moment in the planning stage. 

I can't decide what to clone.  I'm thinking matched stereo for a lot of totally unmatchable vintage tube pieces, probably some early limiters.

 

[okgb]

I have full vipre manual & schematics
for those interested [ many pages ]
uses multi tapped input exformer

c'mon no one wanted the millenia td-1 direct box / pre ?

Oohhh , just saw the SKYCAR................

 

[living sounds]

I'm heavily biased, but gonna guess you've never heard any of the good vintage iron.  There's definitely a large trend around here of using the cheap crap and feeling all glowy about it's vintage. 

I'm always amazed how crappy a lot of modern iron can be.  Examples include insufficient L for matching conditions (making it cheap and small)  and unruly response behavior unless loaded perfectly.   Many 1:1's used as outputs will only give rated response if driven with extremely low-Z sources, and completely crap out with anything less than a bridging source.  Not cool in my book, especially when not advertised as such.  Vintage stuff from the age of matched impedances never changes under minor load differences, and be counted on to work in a variety of circuits without testing.   I would never commit to modern iron without a serious test and measure moment in the planning stage. 

I can't decide what to clone.  I'm thinking matched stereo for a lot of totally unmatchable vintage tube pieces, probably some early limiters.

Are there any modern transformers that sound good to your ears? I've tried several modern ones in a variety of applications and never found them to add much of what I want to hear to the signal, and just like Kingston said, often muddying it. But I've got an old 50s broadcast passive phase scrambler with two huge UTCs in it, and I really like what it does to the signal. Kinda adds sparkle, definition to the transients. Without overdriving it or anything.

So basically, what are the modern (or older) transformers that are actually availible/obtainable we should get (depending on application, of course)? I don't mind paying a somewhat higher price if it sounds good.

 

[emrr]

There's no specific list, and it's situational anyway.  A lot of modern transformers to me sound like almost nothing at all, with a hidden list of demands with regards to loading conditions, Zobel networks, etc.  When I don't have the sort of coupling problems that transformers solve, I fail to see the point when they don't sound like anything. 

I have been impressed with the sound and performance of some models from some current manufacturers, and not at all with others.  Again, situational, and apples versus oranges. 

Many types of coupling found in vintage circuits are tough to find in the current market.  If it exists, it exists from only one specialty source.  Try making a list of high-Z step-up type interstage transformers available today; it'll be pretty short and dissatisfying.  Same with outputs having tertiary feedback windings.   

IMO, any 600:600 that doesn't pass correct response with a true 600 ohm source is a cheap piece of crap, no matter how shiny and expensive it may actually be. 

I have very little to complain about with UTC LS-10's and LS-50's in a tube preamp.  They definitely sound like something, and it sounds great to me.  I will probably complain a fair amount if you replace them with A-10's and A-24's.  There's just no comparison.  Likewise, I don't really want most Triad iron in my audio path, or any UTC O series.  I'm not at all excited by the common vintage junk, or it's vastly inflated prices. 

 

[lassoharp]

Not exactly a piece of gear . . . but - I would clone the collective knowledge base from say 1920 to 1949 regarding circuit design, tube and transformer construction.  Put it in a nice EZ read 20,000 page tome?  A magic pill?  The company water coolers? 

Technically all that info is out there in the actual units, schematics, and literature.  It's those things the star engineers may have came up with that never got built because the bean counters said "no we can't do it that nice".  Maybe those would make good clones. Still, what they did build seems to fetch the same high price when it appears as a modern clone attempt relative to the actual vintage unit.

Maybe cloning the economic environment of the mid century would be more beneficial in terms of overall market demand.  Still, those LS blocks were never really cheap - an LS-27 cost $11.58 less in 1970 than it did in 1955 based on today's inflation rate.  $146.43 vs $134.85.  I wouldn't mind paying 135.00 for a new production LS-27.  Jensen doesn't go near a gapped output of that quality.  Their best input(tube type) offers only 60db of shielding, 20db of step up gain(minus whatever the required loading network steals) and costs 92.00.  I doubt Magnetika would match 135.00 per unit at any sane order number. Sowter may have the closest - maybe even better - in the gapped dept for 127.00USD.  Not bad.

If I had to pick one unit - for now it would be a Collins 26C. I've heard one and I'm a believer.  1000 times a more worthwhile clone attempt than a Sta-Level or UA-175. With folks being as smash crazy as they are today I think the 26 would be . . . a smash. 

 

[emrr]

Yep, stereo 26C.  I've had several in the same room, and there was no doing stereo with them unless you went with mid-side processing.  True of many old mono limiters. 

 

[lassoharp]

Yep, stereo 26C.   I've had several in the same room, and there was no doing stereo with them unless you went with mid-side processing.   True of many old mono limiters. 

mmm Mid-Side on a stereo 26C.  That sounds like a treat to the ears.

 

[redmojosteve]

Interesting.  A Minimoog (like a real one but with stable oscillators). I know there are clone type things out there but they look like bits of old sets from Dr Who's Tardis. A Lamborghini Miura P400 with decent brakes and air-con, Keira Knightley. I think I am getting carried away now. I'll stick with the Moog

 

[JohnRoberts]

Star trek replicator.

JR

 

[phishman13]

Star trek replicator.

JR

+1

 

[Ptownkid]

charlize theron...

OK....charlize theron sitting on two mint condition fairchilds...

+100 sounds like a great combo

 

[deuc224]

I have full vipre manual & schematics
for those interested [ many pages ]
uses multi tapped input exformer

Some one please clone this!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Ptownkid]

I have full vipre manual & schematics
for those interested [ many pages ]
uses multi tapped input exformer

Send it my way!

 

[analag]

I have full vipre manual & schematics
for those interested [ many pages ]
uses multi tapped input exformer

Send it my way!

What you need that for...take a trip to the US and I'll give you access to 34 yrs of experimentation and DIY.

 

[Ptownkid]

Be careful.....I may have to take you up on that some day!